‘The more public it is, the more severe it is’: teachers’ perceptions on the roles of publicity and severity in cyberbullying

ABSTRACT

Those in the teaching profession are facing additional challenges when responding to cyberbullying due to the unique features of publicity and severity. Such features are known to negatively impact on young people’s cyberbullying experiences. Teachers’ views on publicity and severity of cyberbullying are currently unknown. The current research draws on data from 10 focus groups with 63 teachers (10 males) who taught across primary, secondary, and college educational levels in the UK. Reflexive thematic analysis identified three themes: (a) role of severity, (b) differential roles of publicity, and (c) bystander intentions. Participants discussed the role of severity, where visual acts of cyberbullying were perceived more severe than written forms, suggesting the type of cyberbullying is an important indicator in perceived severity. Participants acknowledged how cyberbullying can transition from private, semi-public, and public incidents, which influenced their perceived intervention strategies. Finally, levels of publicity were discussed regarding young people’s bystander intentions, with public incidents of cyberbullying instigating positive and negative bystander intervention. The findings are discussed in relation to practical implications, especially the need to promote awareness for teachers on the issues of publicity and severity in cyberbullying.

KEYWORDS:

• Cyberbullying
• severity
• publicity
• bystanders
• teachers
• schools

Disclosure statement

There are no competing interests to declare. All authors have approved the final article. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter J. R. Macaulay

Peter J. R. Macaulay is a Lecturer in Psychology at Staffordshire University, UK. His main research interests are in the area of social development, focusing specifically on teacher’s perceptions towards cyberbullying, children’s bystander behaviour in the online/offline domain, and children’s knowledge of online risks and safety.

Lucy R. Betts

Lucy R. Betts is an associate professor in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Lucy’s main research interests lie within the area of social developmental psychology. In particular, Lucy’s work focuses on experiences of cyber bullying, face-to-face bullying and harassment. One current strand of research examines young people’s experiences of cyber bullying, the impacts of cyber bullying for psychosocial adjustment and adolescents’ perceptions of the relative risk of experiencing cyber bullying. A second strand of ongoing research explores young people’s experiences of street harassment.

James Stiller

James Stiller is a senior lecturer in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, UK. James’ main research interests include perception and cognition in relation to social networks, evolutionary psychology and theory of mind and social clique formation.

Blerina Kellezi

Blerina Kellezi is a lecturer in Social Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Blerina’s research has focused on how people deal with and are affected by extreme life events from illness and accidents to war, torture and detention. Her PhD work investigated the influence of social identities on understanding and dealing with human rights abuses and trauma.